For past Dolphins writers, perfect 1972 team left indelible mark on future generations
In the summer of 1972, Armando Salguero moved from New York to Miami with his family. At 9 years old, he wasn’t an ardent sports fan, but in his new home, he couldn’t stop hearing people talk about the Dolphins.
“Sure enough, I found out,” said Salguero.
During the next several months, he learned what all the commotion was about. He watched the Don Shula-led Dolphins conquer every opponent in their path, winning all 17 games and accomplishing the first — and to date, only — perfect season in NFL history.
That season served as an introduction to the Dolphins for Salguero, who during the next five decades not only watched Miami’s football team grow from the perspective of a local resident but a sports journalist who covered the team for three decades, primarily as a reporter and then a columnist for the Miami Herald.
Salguero, who now covers the NFL for Outkick.com, and Dolphins writers who followed the team in the aftermath of the 1972 team, saw the highs and lows of the franchise, from the hype of record-setting Dan Marino years to the disappointment of never winning a championship with the gifted passer to the hope instilled by the current Mike McDaniel-Tua Tagovailoa era.
And though 50 years have passed since the perfect season, the ‘72 team not only stamped Miami as a sports town but shaped the local and national perspective for years to come.
“To this day, you can’t go to a Dolphins game without seeing a Csonka jersey or a Griese jersey or a Kiick jersey or a Mercury Morris,” said Steve Wyche, who covered the Dolphins for the Herald in the ‘90s. “It is almost an unfair Paul Bunyan-esque myth that people are always trying to wrap their arms around. Because perfect in any walk of life, especially in the NFL, it is an unachievable goal, but it’s still the goal.”
To some, the legacy of the 1972 team is even further stamped by the shortcomings the Dolphins experienced led by their greatest player in franchise history, Marino.
Miami selected the quarterback out of Pittsburgh with No. 27 pick in the 1983 NFL Draft, a little more than a decade after the ‘72 team. It would mark a stark change in the ethos of a franchise that was led by the bruising running of players such as Larry Csonka and Mercury Morris in the ‘70s.
Marino’s record-setting season in 1984 and appearance in the Super Bowl — albeit a loss to the San Francisco 49ers — only added to the belief that another decade-plus of greatness was underway with Shula.
But during the next 15 years, the Dolphins never made it to the championship game again with Marino and got as far as the conference championship twice.
“The Marino Draft in ‘83 was sort of the second wave of the glory days,” said Greg Cote, sports columnist for the Herald. Cote has covered the Dolphins in some capacity since the early ‘80s.
“But the difference was there was no payday for Marino. As great as he was, he obviously never won a championship. In some way, that actually increased the magnitude of the appreciation of what was accomplished in ‘72. Because here was Dan Marino, the greatest player in franchise history, who couldn’t win a championship. … I think it made everyone really appreciate what happened in ‘72.”
Shula would coach the Dolphins for two more decades after capturing championships in consecutive seasons and those who covered him said he never attempted to replicate the ‘72 team. Still, his teams of the ‘80s and ‘90s took on the toughness that he exhibited as a coach.
“Those guys all had a grind I think that was a systemic seed planted by those ‘72 teams, and Don Shula knowing what you had to have to reach the ultimate goal,” said Wyche, who now works as an reporter and analyst for NFL Network.
Shula has told reporters one of his few regrets is not being able to win a championship alongside Marino. And given the team’s success in the ‘70s, it might have caused an extra level of consternation — and surprise — for fans.
“There were some fleeting moments,” said Stephen Holder, a Miami native who covered the team for the Herald in the early 2000s. Holder now covers the Colts for ESPN.
“But forget the perfect season, they never came close to contending. And I think that is what was probably most frustrating, depending on what generation you were. If you were a fan of the ‘70s, you grew up knowing perfection and then what was so far away from that. When you have that glorious past, it raises the stakes for future generations of the team. Particularly when maybe the greatest coach of all is still on the sideline. That looms, that success is still looming because he represents that success.”
The Dolphins have never truly recaptured the success of the early ‘70s and 1972 team. The days of Marino transitioned into the late ‘90s and early 2000s teams led by Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt, who took the team to five consecutive playoff appearances between 1997 and 2001. Since then, the Dolphins notably have just two trips to the postseason and zero playoff wins.
Whether it’s those jerseys of the ‘70s players or the photos on the walls of the Dolphins’ lavish practice facility, it’s always a reminder of what those early Shula teams built in Miami, a fervor that has at times been recaptured with the success of the 2022 Dolphins, in the midst of their own playoff push.
“I think there has always been pressure to be as good as you once were, which doesn’t necessarily mean perfection,” Cote said. “But I think it does mean winning a champion. This is a franchise that won two in a row, including the most unique season in pro sports history, and has never been able to do it again. I’d have to think that that’s pressure on every owner. That’s pressure on [Stephen] Ross, that’s pressure on Chris Grier, that’s pressure on McDaniel and it’s pressure on Tua.”
The writers who spoke to the Herald emphasized the impact of the ‘72 team in building Miami as a sports team. The kids who now cheer on this year’s team can be told folklore-like stories of a team that went unblemished and wonder if they will ever see a squad that comes close to that mark. And though decades of mediocrity have followed the football town, writers contend it’s one ready to burst if the Dolphins have ever get close to those ‘70s days.
“If the Dolphins ever made a Super Bowl run, I think Miami would be besides itself,” Holder said. “I don’t know if we’re ready for that. I don’t know if that town is ready for that. Because there’s been such a thirst for so long and it hasn’t been quenched. If it ever happens, I think it’s going to be epic.”
